


Empress 《皇后》

by SummerZephyr



Category: Chinese Actor RPF, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Ancient China, Eventual Happy Ending, Imperial Palace, M/M, Minor Character Death, Political Intrigue, Wuxia, period-typical violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:28:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29856051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerZephyr/pseuds/SummerZephyr
Summary: His clothes were made of the finest silk, its embroidery incontestably exquisite. His hair was pulled up in a meticulous style. There was not a single out-of-place strand obscuring a face that I could not turn away from.During a death-defying rite of passage, Wang Yibo encounters a Prince.- Translated from Mandarin -
Relationships: Wang Yi Bo/Xiao Zhan | Sean
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [【博君一肖】 皇后](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22234726) by [AbyssJIN](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbyssJIN/pseuds/AbyssJIN). 



> Hi! This is a translation of the linked work - if you like it, please go over to her fic, or her Weibo page [北方流氓](https://weibo.com/u/5380848884) to give it some love :) 
> 
> Translator's note:  
>  _Jianghu_ 江湖 - literally, rivers and lakes - refers to the community of pugilists and kungfu/martial artists in Ancient China, the _wuxia_ 武侠 world. The members tend to exist and operate outside of the usual realm of laws mandated by the monarchy.

The Empress and I grew up together.

I was six years old when Teacher picked me up from the streets, with a dislike for talking and a penchant for sitting blankly all day. Back then, I was thin and small, and also very pale, like a porcelain piece that had never seen the sun. Teacher had the impression that I was the studying sort, so he named me ‘Wang Yibo’ – of broad knowledge.

Half a year later, I grew used to the environment, and could no longer withstand sitting around all day. I took the chance, when Teacher nodded off, to jump over the walls of the academy, into the wild mountains outside, spending a few nights with the flowers, birds, fish, and snakes there. Apparently, a lot of people in the academy said that there was an eighty percent chance I had perished in the mountains. But I jumped back over the walls of the academy after a few days, on a night that was much too cold to sleep outdoors in, landing in the middle of the courtyard, covered entirely in dirt, and scared a maidservant in the midst of her midnight tryst half to death.

Teacher, who witnessed the endless number of times I fell asleep at the writing desk, stopped forcing me to study. He sent me to learn kungfu from his close friend instead.

I spent two years with Master. Then he brought me back to the academy for a visit, told Teacher that I was a prodigy at the martial arts; studying would have been a waste of my talents, he said. Picking up his most precious teacup, Teacher took a sip of tea so fragrant that I, sitting two metres away, could smell. He asked Master, am I still averse as I was to talking, this past half year? Smiling, Master replied, not talking is good. As a person of the _jianghu_ , I must understand the principle that _misfortune comes from the mouth_ , so by not talking, I’ve already saved myself from half of the trouble.

I sat there, listening to them, and it didn’t take long before I started nodding off. A girl who looked to be a few years older than me entered from the outside.

I hadn’t seen many girls in my life. She must be the prettiest that I’ve ever seen.

Behind the girl was a nobleman. I stood up and bowed to them, then found another nondescript corner to continue napping in.

The orioles in the academy courtyard sing beautifully. Teacher has never consciously tamed them, but they frequent the academy still. Mrs Teacher feeds them millet, sometimes. When I first arrived here, I fed them, too – I get along quite well with the birds here.

I did not understand the things they talked about – perhaps it was because my focus was placed entirely on the birds in the courtyard. I only heard Master’s characteristic, boisterous laughter. He was singing my praises to Teacher, and even to that nobleman, and the pretty miss.

From that day forward, the little miss stayed at the academy. I didn’t go back, either – Master left me behind to train with the various disciples there. As for Miss, she stayed in her room, learning the scholarly pursuits – the _qin_ , reading, calligraphy, painting – as well as poetry and singing.

There were many boys in the academy. They perched on the walls, watched me secretly as I trained – then ran off to find Miss, and tried to show off what they’d seen, though they often made fools of themselves. Miss, who is not a talkative person, just smiled benignly at them with no trace of mockery whatsoever.

They became more audacious as a result.

They’d smuggle erotica into the academy, then discuss it at secretive corners, out of Teacher’s sight. Sometimes, they dragged me along. They asked me, what kind of girls do you like. I shook my head. Then they said, I could pick from any of the maidservants that Miss brought along. I shook my head again.

I don’t have any interest in girls, like the girls in the erotica they had. Not Miss, even – all I thought, when I first saw her, was that she looked pretty.

They said that I should be ordained as a monk.

Once, I spent the night in the mountains with Master – the academy courtyard had long ceased to further my martial skills. I was sound asleep in the dead of night when Master seized me, and tried to hurl me into the waterfall that I often caught fish in. My brain did not catch up to the actions of my hands until much later, and by the time I realized what happened, Master had already vanished, tossed into the roaring spray by me.

I did not look for him. I sat on a damp rock, waited for him to come up. He gave me a big thumbs up.

He often praised me in front of others, but never to my face. This was the first time.

“All martial artists should have a goal in life. Do you?” Master asked me.

I shook my head. I had no goal. I do not wish to be the best, or learn some unequalled martial skill, nor do I wish to marry and have children. I will learn whatever Master teaches me, and I will follow whatever Master arranges for me.

“Before you discover your goal, go and protect Miss. Guard her from harm.”

I nodded, said yes.

I was fifteen that year. Miss was seventeen – tall, slender, elegant. Perhaps it was due to my martial training, but I grew very fast, surpassing almost every other boy in the academy. My skin was still impossibly pale, though, even though I spent so much time in the mountains under the sun.

Someone once asked me – Miss is as beautiful as a fairy, who do you think she will be married to?

I continued gazing at the orioles in the courtyard, listening to their trills, then replied, blandly, I don’t know.

“It matters not who she will marry. I will follow.”

Master gave me some money, told me to leave. I was to return two years from now, alive.

I thought it was a rite of passage for all martial artists; I did not expect to find people trying to kill me the moment I stepped out from the mountain. I was masked, so they did not know what my face looked like – but they recognized the jade pendant hanging from my waist. It was a gift from Master, I was not to remove it.

I travelled to the city. I saw the notices stuck on the wall, then, and realized that Master had sent out a call – whoever managed to acquire the head of this jade pendant’s owner will be rewarded with one hundred taels of gold.

I looked at the few dozen taels of silver hanging from the pouch at my waist, and wondered how I was to survive two years with it.

Gradually, I became somewhat of a legend in the _jianghu_. They say that whoever kills me will attain a vast amount of riches. The price on my head grew from one hundred taels to ten thousand. I wondered if Master himself heard about these rumours, regretted the price he’d set; Master does not look like he has ten thousand taels of gold to spare. 

A gang of people tried to corner me at an inn, but I jumped through a few open windows and shook them off easily. Perched at the window of the inn opposite, I watched as they upended the inn in the chaos, watched as the owner knelt on the ground, crying. Privately, I felt somewhat sorry for him. I planned to come back later with the gold I had taken from some other gang that tried to kill me yesterday, I will give him an ingot as compensation.

A thread of coolness appeared at my throat. I dared not move. The sharp edge of the blade rested directly on my pulse; if the person is martially-trained, and exerted just that bit of force… my two-year training period will end eighty days early, and Master, unable to produce ten thousand taels of gold, might actually be forced to kill himself instead.

But the message that blade conveyed to me was this – its owner does not know kungfu. In fact, its owner is sickly, possibly an invalid. Unconcerned, I turned my head.

“Morning.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. Except for that voice from his throat, he did not appear solid or present at all. Small wonder I did not hear his breathing.

His clothes were made of the finest silk, its embroidery incontestably exquisite. His hair was pulled up in a meticulous style. There was not a single out-of-place strand obscuring a face that I could not turn away from.

I felt, then, that Miss was no longer the most beautiful person that I’d ever seen.

“Am I about to immediately acquire ten thousand taels of gold?” He bent his head slightly, asked me.

Some blood had already seeped out from my neck, rolling down the slope of his knife blade. He withdrew it, picked up a white square handkerchief from the table, wiped it clean. Then he carelessly tossed the blood-stained fabric back onto the table.

Someone called to him from the outside, they said, my Prince, it is time to depart.

He turned around, handed me the knife. I said, I usually use a sword.

“Take it and protect yourself. Don’t get caught again – your head is a lot more valuable than this knife.”

He left right after I accepted the blade. I put it at my waist, next to the jade pendant.

Eighty days flew by quickly. The reward redemption period was two years long, and the scores of people who wanted to kill me brooded about it until their eyes grew red. But I do not like killing people – they had no argument with me, all they wanted was the money. In the end, I had no choice. The amount of skilled attackers grew day by day; if I didn’t kill them, I would be the one dying instead.

The last eighty days covered my hands with blood. When I returned to the academy, Master was waiting for me at the entrance. He handed me a piece of cloth, and I wiped away the blood before I entered, so that I would not scare Miss.

That was when I remembered the white handkerchief, hidden at my chest. I had washed away the blood on it. Initially, I had wanted to wrap it around the knife that the Prince gave me, but I changed my mind after I felt its fine, soft weave. This sort of white, smooth, and yet, cool sensation felt as if it was the Prince’s skin. I had never touched it, so I could only imagine. I thought, it must feel like this.

After that, I placed the handkerchief inside the pocket at my chest. I wanted to warm it, at least, not wrap the blade with it.

I saw Miss again, after two years. She smiled at me, I bowed – neither of us have ever been the type to talk. With me around, she said, she would feel very secure when she gets married next time.

There will always be people who think that there is something between us, but I think she is even more of an empty shell than I am.

“I will protect Miss.”

But then she said to me, I am sorry.

I did not understand her meaning until the next morning. Master told me that Miss is to marry into the palace, marry the Emperor.

Then, I understood. I may not be able to step out of that palace for many years to come. But I did not mind. If Master hadn’t sent me away, I wouldn’t have left the mountain. Like the orioles in the courtyard, I was simply unwilling to fly.

“His Majesty’s wedding… will the Prince be there?”

Master did not expect that my longstanding silence would be broken by such an irrelevant question. But he did not question it; he simply nodded his head, said that all the relatives of the Emperor should be there.

I gripped that handkerchief, took my leave. Packed my belongings, accompanied Miss to the family manor, and awaited the day she is to be wed.

Actually, all I brought was my sword, and that knife. Worried that the knife blade will blunt over time, I fashioned a sheath for it. The handkerchief I folded neatly, and placed it back at my chest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translator's note: 冷宫, literally 'cold palace' - refers to the residence of a concubine that has fallen into disfavour.

On the day that Miss entered the palace, I wore red, walking behind the palanquin as it entered the vast palace grounds. Miss brought only two people with her – me, and a maidservant who, like me, has been at the academy since she was a child. She is a bit older than me, but I no longer remember her name – Miss always called her Maid.

We could only accompany Miss to the courtyard of the main palace, then we had to wait outside.

Maid bumped against my elbow, told me that all the palace maids coming out from the banquet hall were peeking at me. I responded with an expressionless grunt. Perhaps Maid was also used to my personality, because she did not continue the conversation.

Two hours later, we accompanied Miss to the bedchambers.

I saw that Prince again, just a glance of him; I did not have a lot of time to look.

That knife was in my room – I could not carry a knife around on Miss’s wedding day, but that handkerchief remained at my chest. The Prince’s usually pale face was tinged with a flush of pink – perhaps he is not tolerant of alcohol. I was seized with the urge to wipe it away with the handkerchief.

My Adam’s apple bobbed. I understood that this was the first sense of desire I’d ever felt in my seventeen years of life.

Master used to say that a person without desire possesses both a good and bad thing. It’s fine if they remain so for the rest of their life, but once a desire sets root, said person will discover their bias for it, and the rest of their life will be a difficult one.

Until today, I believed I was the former sort. Now, I realize that my desire for him has far exceeded my imagination. Before I met him, I had no wish to encounter a person more than once.

The rest of my life will be a difficult one.

I stood guard outside the bedchamber, retreating only after His Majesty arrived. I am aware of what happens next.

Like her, Miss’s wedding garments were one in a million, the result of a selection process spanning ten thousand miles wide. She looked exquisite in them. Perhaps the Emperor will find his heart moved, like I did. But then again, the Emperor must have come across scores of beautiful women, whereas I have seen only one person on that level of beauty - the Prince himself.

If he were to dress in red wedding garments, I would deliver my pulse to the blade of his knife again, dye a thousand of his blades a vivid red, if only he wished it so.

Miss has always been a graceful, cultured person. Just as she had done in the academy, she paints quietly inside her residence, hums a soft melody every now and then, occasionally plays the _qin._ Even her visits to the garden were rare. That was how the three of us quietly spent our days. We had grown used to this sort of life, so we did not find it dreary in the least. But I pity our palace maidservants, who spent most of their days snoozing in the courtyard.

If it weren’t for the blooming flowers in our courtyard, which Miss carefully watered and tended to, and if it weren’t for the frequent announcements of “the arrival of His Majesty!”, one would think this was a cold palace.

His Majesty favours Miss; the gifts he sent have filled almost the entire manor. Miss accepts them with a smile, then responds with an exquisite painting of her own, or perhaps some calligraphy.

His Majesty also likes to watch Miss playing the _qin_ among the flowers. Once, struck by an aesthetic inclination, His Majesty wished to bring Miss to the lakeside pavilion. He said that, if she were to play the _qin_ there, he would think that Miss is a fairy bestowed upon him by the heavens.

I carried the _qin_ and, along with Maid, accompanied them to the lakeside.

We met the Prince in the garden.

Six years older than I, he is the youngest brother of the Emperor, and is also the most outstanding in looks amongst all of the Emperor’s brothers. He has no desire for contest or power, so the Emperor is reasonably courteous to him.

My arms were busy with the _qin_ , so I could only bend slightly at the waist in lieu of a bow. When I looked up again, the Prince is not looking at me; perhaps he no longer remembers me. He exchanged a few words with the Emperor, then bowed and departed, so as to not disturb His Majesty’s aesthetic inclination.

With Miss in his arms, His Majesty moved towards the pavilion. The Prince swept past me. A few strands of his hair, blown aloft by the wind, brushed over my ear like a firebrand.

I had a brief, sudden urge to throw away that _qin_.

Maid stopped in her tracks, looked back. I looked back, too. The Prince was holding a sheathed knife in his hand, resting it against my throat.

“You have no vigilance whatsoever. How are you to protect Her Highness?”

It was the knife at my waist, the knife that he had given to me. I did not notice it again, the same way I did not notice his presence the first time we met.

Before His Majesty could turn around, the Prince slipped the knife into his sleeve, smiled at me, and left. I continued to follow Miss, holding the _qin_ in my arms, and I could not stop myself from mimicking his smile, because he remembers me still.

A gentle breeze was blowing at the lakeside pavilion; Miss’s outfit fluttered in the wind. If she had still been an unmarried maiden, ebony hair loose, strands floating in the breeze… she’d look like a real fairy, then.

Like the Prince that just passed by.

On the day of the first snowfall of winter, I escorted Miss to His Majesty’s study. His Majesty was very busy with official affairs during then, so he rarely came to visit, often, he just summoned Miss over instead. Miss is a very intelligent person; I could sense it during her discussions with Teacher.

Miss’s looks and talents seemed to place her above almost every other concubine in the Imperial Harem. I think, with the exception of the sickly, bedbound Empress, His Majesty spent most of his thoughts on her alone.

She removed her cape. Just as Maid took the fabric into her hands, the Prince walked out of the door. I did not bow to him; Miss saw the Prince, gave him a smile, then said to me.

“ _Xiaobao_ (little treasure), you may return first. I have Maid with me, it is enough.”

I responded, then turned around and walked back, following those similarly-sized footsteps in the snow.

I looked up. The Prince had paused, standing along the corridor. I hesitated, unsure if I should continue forward. There was only one way out; I surely cannot jump over the walls of the royal study.

He turned around, waved at me.

“If I did not know that you are Her Highness’s guard, I would think you were here to assassinate me.”

I was almost killed by you twice, I thought in my mind.

“The fact that you survived until now is quite a feat. Not even ten thousand taels of gold could get someone to kill you.”

What he’s saying should be a joke, I think.

“Only you, Your Highness. And you gave up, too.”

The Prince gazed at me, then withdrew the knife from his sleeve, placed it in my hand. “That head of yours looks best on your neck.”

I thought that the path I could accompany him on would conclude at the end of this corridor, but after we exited the gate, he continued walking in my direction. He was living in the palace for the time-being, he said, making the Empress Dowager happy.

He said, after all these years, pleasing people had become his greatest skill.

I was unable to deny that. He did have an instant likability to him. At least, to me.

“ _Xiaobao_ , do you have a proper name?” He asked me.

“Wang Yibo.”

 _Xiaobao_ is a moniker that Miss calls me by. I do not know how she came up with it, but, like Maid, I did not find it objectionable; she called us thus, and we accepted it.

But I do not like others calling me that. Someone called me that in the academy once, and I knocked one of his teeth out.

“Your Highness can call me whichever he prefers.”

“I shall call whatever comes to mind.”

The snowfall got heavier, and I had reached a point where I must part from him. He said, he must get going to visit the Empress Dowager now.

I do not know when I will see him again. In the vast expanse of the palace, it is sometimes difficult to meet someone twice.

“Do you think that, in this palace, there is someone whose _kungfu_ is better than yours?”

“Yes.”

The Imperial guards like to collaborate in their fights. I am but one man; they will never give me a chance to fight one-on-one.

“But that _jianghu_ legend – they say that the man with the jade pendant escaped from the Four Flying Thieves thrice, and in the end, managed to kill them all. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“All of them had escaped from death row,” he smiled, crinkling his eyes, “Come and find me tonight. Show me some of that Flying Thief-escaping skill of yours.”

But he did not tell me where he stayed. I had asked, and his only reply was, “I do not know, too.”

At night, the snowfall got even heavier; there would probably be a full layer of snow by midnight. Footsteps would be hard to hide, but it wouldn’t take long for them to be filled in by snow again.

I changed my clothes, positioned that knife at my waist. I had asked the palace maids in the courtyard, they told me about the bedchambers that the Prince often resides in. It was very isolated. Not a single guard was present.

I searched every single corner.

I am not sensitive to him. His knife landed on my neck the first time, and it happened again the second time. He is the only person in this world who can kill me with a flick of his hand, moreover, I would not resist.

I did not dare to be too untamed in the palace – if I was caught, I may affect Miss’s entire future – so I stood outside, far away from the Empress Dowager’s residence, and watched one of the rooms next to the courtyard, the only room still lit with a faint, flickering light.

With the exception of the Emperor’s bedchambers, that residence is the most well-guarded area of the palace.

I sat on the steps. It seemed as if the snow was going to bury me into a snowman.

I really wanted to find him.

“You are not cold?”

I shook my head. Specks of snow flicked off from my hair. I am not shivering, but my neck felt frozen.

“Come in.”

He lit more candles, then ignited the brazier. My body felt a bit warmer then. The clothes I was wearing were soaked, droplets falling onto the floor; they evaporate from the brazier’s heat not long after.

“Why did you not enter? You clearly found me.” He said, sitting down opposite.

“I did not dare.”

“Afraid you would be caught?”

“Yes.”

He smiled, then rose, pressed a set of clothes into my hands. “They probably would not be able to catch you.”

“They cannot. Not even a one in ten thousand chance is acceptable.” I said, looking down.

The arm holding the clothes shook, just once. I took the clothes, raised my head to look at him. He was still smiling, but the smile appeared somewhat bitter.

“I wish I had a guard like you. My old guard, who was with me for more than a decade, almost killed me.”

“Why did he want to kill you?”

“I do not know either.” He heated a jar of wine, brought it over. “Here. Change out of those wet clothes and have some wine, it will warm you up.”

Those clothes belong to the Prince, naturally, I did not dare to put them on. He did not force me, he simply placed the warm cup of wine into my hand.

My alcohol tolerance was honed by Master himself; he said, the people of the _jianghu_ must be able to drink, or else you will get taken advantage of. Though, I knew that he was only looking for an excuse to sate his cravings, and besides, I did not enter the _jianghu_ anyway.

As I expected, the Prince’s alcohol tolerance was poor; just a few sips of wine was enough to make his cheeks flush red. But he remained proprietary, and his words had no slur whatsoever.

“Tell me about your life.”

There was not much I could say. Miss had been at the academy ever since I met her, so all I could talk about was the academy. He interrupted me, said that he wanted to hear my story, not hers.

There was even less to say then, because I had no stories to tell. Only two years of my life were spent away from the academy, and that had been because Master forced me out of the mountain; the only thing worth remembering in that period was him. I know he wanted to hear all about how I managed to kill those four experts, but everything I could remember was in bits and pieces. Back then, I had people trying to kill me almost every day, I don’t even remember all their faces anymore – in fact, I only learnt that those four were the famed four experts afterwards.

“Are your parents martial artists, too?”

“No, Teacher picked me up from the streets one day and brought me to the academy,” I knew that we had run out of topics to talk about, but I did not want to end my encounter with him so soon, so I tried hard to think of something that’s not so boring, “When Teacher first brought me back, I didn’t like to talk. He wanted me to be a scholar, so he named me Wang Yibo. But I couldn’t do it, so he sent me to my Master to learn _kungfu_ instead.”

I watched his reaction; it seemed like a boring topic still. He set his wine cup down on the table, tapped his finger against the armrest of his high-quality mahogany chair.

“My father had just won a battle when my mother gave birth to me. He was combative by nature, and in that stroke of happiness, he decided to name me _Zhan_ 战 (war). But I was a sickly child, and I could not learn martial arts. It is a waste of a name.”

Perhaps the temperature in the room had risen; the Prince’s face flushed even more. He gave a yawn, so I moved to retreat, let him rest. With half-closed eyes, he smiled at me, and it appeared even more intimate.

He said that, next time, I do not need to treat him like a Prince. This implied that he was willing to meet me again.

I said to him, “I will not betray you.”

“And if I were to become an enemy of Her Highness?” His eyes grew bigger.

I do not know why he asked this, so I could only reply with my instincts.

“I will not let her anyone harm her.”

He nodded, said he believed me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/N: There are many different titles for the residents of the Imperial palace – for example, the Emperor’s brothers are referred to as 王爷 wangye, his sons are referred to as 皇子 huangzi, and the Crown Prince has a special title of 太子 taizi. In English, though, their title is pretty much the same – Prince. Just a heads up, because the word “prince” will appear quite often!

After that, a long period of time passed.

The spring flowers had bloomed by the time I saw the Prince again. I had been escorting Miss on her stroll around the gardens; the Prince was sitting there, reading poetry to a young prince, he had just turned seven years old.

The Prince mentioned peonies, then looked up at me. Then he turned to Miss, said, I heard that the place where Her Highness grew up was full of peonies, she even brought them into the palace.

Miss said, yes. Perhaps she saw the Prince’s interest, because she turned around then, and asked me tell the Prince about the peonies I planted at the academy with Mrs Teacher.

I do not know why she asked me tell it. I am not a good storyteller. The Prince and the little prince are both looking at me, and so is Maid, too, standing by the side. She gave me an impatient push.

I met the Prince’s gaze. His eyes rippled like the waters of the lake, fluttering with the waves generated by one’s moving feet… and I, like a water bubble blown out from the mouth of a koi, broke apart at the surface.

I extended my hand, and the medium-sized white peony in it.

This peony was from Miss’s courtyard; they had grown well. She had plucked two before coming out today – a yellow one, placed on Maid’s hair, and a white one, given to me.

I walked up to the Prince, and gave him the flower.

As he took it from my hand, his fingertips brushed against my palm. His skin did not feel like what I had imagined – instead of the cool sensation of that handkerchief fabric, it blazed with heat… or perhaps that was my heart’s imagination. That residual warmth lingered on my palm, not dissipating; I wrapped my hand into a fist, placed it behind my back.

The little prince extended his hand, asking for the flower. Holding his hand, the Prince led him to one of the palace maids, and requested her to bring him back to his room. Then he silently slipped the flower into his chest pocket.

The Prince did not talk to me when he returned; Miss walked with him into one of the garden pavilions. I was not aware that Miss knew him – I spent a large amount of time with her, if he appeared, I would’ve been the first to know.

But it seems that they know one another well.

The maidservants in the courtyard gossip, sometimes. They say there was a forbidden romance between the two of them, that they are a pair of heaven-made lovers. Maid slapped one of the maidservants across the face, and I told them that if those words ever escaped from this courtyard, I will ensure that they never spoke again. They believed me, because that was the longest sentence that I’d ever said to them.

Blocked by the towering scholar tree in the courtyard, half of the summer sunbeams never reached the ground. That tree had been brought here by order of His Majesty, and only because Miss said she liked to have tea under the shade of a tree.

Setting down the white jade teacup in his hand, His Majesty took the brush from Miss, then wrapped her hand in his. He wished to bring her out of the palace, he said, to visit his newly-completed summer villa.

The smile on Miss’s face was milder than the jasmine tea in the teapot. She thanked His Majesty, then turned around and said to me, it would be just nice for you to make a trip home, then.

I nodded, then wondered which home she was talking about. Am I to visit Master, or visit Teacher at the academy?

“The Prince is going to the neighbouring country. Go with him.” Miss said to me after His Majesty departed.

I left at dawn on the day of Miss’s planned departure. The Prince’s residence was still very quiet; an old housekeeper let me in, allowed me to wait inside. When the Prince emerged, yawning, I stood up – but he motioned for me to sit down, asked me if I’ve had breakfast. I have not – the only thing I put in my stomach since dawn was a cup of tea – so I followed him to a restaurant.

Perhaps the Prince liked spicy food, because almost every single dish on the table seemed to be covered with red chilli. I only ate a few bites before I had to stop. After drinking two cups of tea, I sat there, waiting as he ate.

“You don’t eat spicy food?”

“Yes.”

He summoned the waiter and ordered some other dishes, but rejected them after just one taste – he said they were too sour. But I quite like this sort of old vinegar taste. Trying to balance out the sour taste in his mouth, the Prince ate a mouthful of spicy food, but it caught on his throat. I passed him a cup of cooled tea, and ended up splashing some of it on him, but he didn’t seem to mind, he quickly drank it down. A trickle of liquid ran down his chin, flowing into his collar.

I hastily pulled out the handkerchief from my chest pocket. After wiping himself, he held it tightly in his hand, and that was when I remembered – it was an item that he had left behind. I sat down, praying in my heart that he would not recognize it.

“Do you remember this place?”

I looked at my surroundings, then shook my head.

“I was resting here last year when someone jumped in from the window,” he said, then raised his hand, returned the handkerchief to me.

I kept it properly, not looking at his eyes. He had two more bites of food, then set down the chopsticks, rose, and left. I followed behind him.

A child on the street threw her toy at me. After seeing my face, she sat down on the ground in front of me and started crying.

“Don’t be so fierce.” Bending down, he picked up the toy, placed in the child’s hands, and patted away the dirt on her body.

“I was not being fierce.” This is how my face naturally looks.

“Smile a little.”

I rarely smile, especially not with him staring at me like that. My face being as wooden as it is, I could only lift the corners of my mouth. Perhaps it looked unusually savage, because the child started crying harder than ever.

He sent the child on her way, then pressed his fingertips onto my face, guiding the flesh on my cheeks.

“This is called a smile.”

The expression on my face remained there after his fingertips left. I like the feeling of his skin on mine, and started yearning for the next time we touched again.

Unexpectedly, he smiled, too. His eyes crinkled up, curving into little crescents. Touching my cheek with his palm, he said, you look so much like a child when you smile.

Turning around, the Prince continued walking, told me to keep up. I ran up next to him. Then he said to me, you cannot smile when you are escorting Miss, because you have to protect her. But you can smile when you are with me.

“I am also here to protect you.”

He glanced back at me, then continued walking. An official dressed in Imperial garments was standing some distance in front; I do not recognize him. The Prince stopped in his tracks, and, ignoring the official, turned to me and said, “I like watching you smile.”

That official rushed forward, bowed, then said anxiously that his Highness shall be late if he does not depart soon. The Prince gave a bland nod, then told me to return to the manor with him – we are leaving.

His carriage had already been prepared, it was waiting for his return. Someone in his entourage tried to talk to me, but I barely responded until the man sighed and said, I heard the neighbouring princesses are rather pampered, I wonder if the future Mistress will be difficult to serve.

I stopped, watching as the carriage rolled on ahead. That man turned back and dragged me forward, told me to keep up, I cannot let the Prince fall behind.

“He’s going there to get married?” I asked him.

“He’s going there to discuss one of the small cities on the edge of the border. If that matter is settled, then the marriage is, also.”

I gripped the handle of that knife hanging at my waist. Catching up to the carriage, we continued on our way.

The neighbouring country is a small one. His Majesty wanted one of the border cities, so that it could act as a fortress in case of war. I waited outside with the entourage until it was very late at night; so late that the rest of them started yawning uncontrollably. When the Prince finally emerged, there was a hint of wine scent on him, though only a faint wisp of it entered my nostrils – gazing at his pink, flushed cheeks, I felt myself loving that scent even more.

But I saw the jovial way he conducted his farewell, it seemed that the talks were successful… I withdrew the step that I was about to take and remained in my customary position behind his back.

He returned to his quarters, said to me, go and rest. Standing at the door, I told him that I will leave after he is asleep, this is how I operate with Miss, too. He left me to it.

Actually, there was no need for me to stand guard. Here is a lot safer than the palace. But I am worried that something might happen; I do not trust even the air in this place.

Around 2am, there was a whisper of movement. It did not sound like the cicada calls in the summer night. I jumped onto the roof, and watched as two people quietly pulled open one of the back windows. The rustle the wooden frame made was softer than breathing.

“You first.” That man’s voice was, too.

“You first.” I appeared behind them, my voice deliberately pressed low.

They must have been shocked – I saw the man who just spoke open his mouth. But he did not manage to make a sound, because my knife entered his mouth then, and cut his tongue out.

“You are disturbing my Prince.”

I placed my sword at his throat. “And you dirtied my knife.”

He died without a sound. The blood that spattered on the dirt seeped swiftly in, leaving no trace.

The remaining man trembled all over as he stared at me, but he did not dare utter anything. Grabbing a fistful of his clothes, I wiped my knife clean, then ripped off a piece of cloth and stuffed it into his mouth. I left with him in tow.

The next morning, the Prince opened his door, stepped out into the sun, and did a lazy stretch. He saw me, told me to smile for him; I did so. He raised his thumb at me and said that I made some improvement.

“We shall be going back soon.” Perhaps he could see that I spent the night awake, “You can sleep on the carriage for a bit, if you are tired.”

“We cannot return yet.”

“Why?” He looked curiously at me.

I brought him to the servants’ quarters. The man who was left alive yesterday was situated in a corner, his body completely tied up.

“Someone tried to assassinate you last night.”

The expression on the Prince’s face vanished instantly. Stalking forward, he pulled out the rag from the man’s mouth, and asked, who had sent him? But the man refused to reply.

The Prince asked, was it just him?

“There was one more. I killed him and threw the body into the stables.”

“You can kill this one too, since we cannot get anything out of him,” he threw the rag beside the man, then walked over to me and said, “Do not go easy on him.”

I understood his intention. Initially, I picked up that tongue-gouging knife from my waist, but then I thought better of it. Replacing the knife, I asked one of the men at the side to go get a chopper instead. That man fell over my legs, begging desperately for mercy; I repeated the Prince’s questions, but he again refused to answer. Raising the chopper, I brought it down over his leg. He gave a loud scream.

The chopper stopped at his clothes. There was a trace of blood on the blade when I raised it.

They were sent by an enemy country, they had infiltrated the palace, they wanted to kill the Prince and frame it on the neighbouring country. Small though this country may be, it just happened to have the desired city within its borders. The enemy wanted it as well, but they were one step behind the Prince.

The Prince gave orders to have this man hauled back home. We ignored the remaining body; the neighbouring country can handle it.

On the journey back, the Prince pulled aside the carriage curtain and called me in. Then he said, you spent two days walking and one night standing guard, are you not tired?

Honestly, I was used to it – when I was punished during my training with Master in the mountains, I often had to stay awake for several days and nights. 

But I still hooded my eyes, nodded my head.

“Why did you not wake me last night?”

“There was no need. This sort of thing should not disturb your rest.”

He looked at me, resting his chin in his palm. Then, he suddenly raised his hand, placed them over my eyes, and said I should go and sleep.

“Your Highness,” my eyes were open, but all I could see was darkness – his hand blocked out almost all the light, “Are you about to be married?”

His hand moved back down. Leaning against the side of the carriage, the Prince thought for a while, then said, it depends on His Majesty’s will.

“But it should be quite soon.”


End file.
